ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with field expeditions to collect examples traditional romancero. The more abundant and the more varied the examples are for carrying out an intertextual comparison, the better command one can have of the poetic language in which romances are expressed and the closer one can come to an understanding of their mechanisms of transmission. The chapter presents a history of ballad collecting and then describes the author's own collecting experience. Peasants who have had some contact with the ballad tradition understood the collection interest in saving from oblivion the romances that some members of the community can still recall. The various levels of the romancero that different types of reciters can offer oblige the collectors to choose their questions during the interview. The collectors were able to confirm the rapid disappearance of traditional culture as a result of the depopulation of the small rural communities in which the romancero was being kept alive.
